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Understanding is most certainly the back bone to training. We cannot allow ourselves to react to the dog. If we can avoid allowing the situations to present themselves then we should. We have the ability to understand what and how our dog will react in certain situations by remembering. This is one reason why we have the ability to help dogs change their behaviors to things, people, situations, and ultimately all of its environments.
I was out on a consult this afternoon where the dog was acting like a normal confident dog but had peculiar behaviors concerning their 1-2 year old. He's snapped and had bitten their child. He's growled at them in the bed, and is now afraid of storms where in the past he was not afraid. Most wonder why or there must be an underlying cause of why. Sometimes the only answer is that it's conditional. There has to be a certain condition that the dog does not know how to handle properly and when it arises he then reacts a certain way. This has happened with certain circumstances with their son. A lot of the times we will think that there an underlying cause. The dog is actually a nervous of scared dog. In this case the dog trusted its owners. He absolutely trusted them. He was a a confident dog. Where the breakdown was happening in my opinion is lack of directing and training on how what the dog should do when it shows he was not 100% comfortable and confident in a situation.
The owners admitted that when they see it's about to happen they get tense. Understandably right? I would too. The problem is the dog associates the baby coming over with his owners as being tense and he thinks it's the baby do to associating the tense change as he approaches. The dog is already in that circle at that moment. The child is coming into the space. So in the dogs mind the child is causing his source or person to feel uncomfortable so in his mind the dog must help. This is a common theme when visiting homes. I see this time in and time again. It's hard to see it unless it is explained to you. We know we are scared of what our puppy would do to our kids. The dog is saying he's going to protect you because he senses you're uneasy about the child approaching even though it's the dog you're unsure of it doesn't register because he's already there.
How to fix the problems that environmental situations that arise are usually just adding direction as if you were adding a cue into the dogs repertoire. So If you know something is going to happen when someone approaches start by guiding the dog in this case off of the sofa to the floor and lure into a down. As soon as the dog is in the down position next to him on the floor and owner on the couch I would then mark that behavior and rinse wash repeat and then when the dog offers to get down from the couch and lay in that designated area mark and then start giving the command a name and work with him staying there until asked to move. Once his child was in his lap or crawling on him he could then invite the puppy back up and then mark behaviors of the puppy being calm in that environment. Ultimately we want the puppy to feel good about the baby. To have a great association with the baby's approach. Most of the time we thing the puppy will figure out these things on its own but the truth is they're too much in the moment and can't decipher what will happen like we can. The puppy is not anticipating, the person is. This is causing the trigger. Even though the very first incident could've been caused by a the dog not feeling comfortable and looking for help. The dog is not taking anything personal. There for we should treat each opportunity as a learning experience. We can think we've worked through everything with our dog and see it have so much confidence and then one thing may happen and shake the foundation of trust in the dog and in the person for the dog.
It is very tricky to work with a dog especially when there's emotions involved. One thing that we all have to do if we want to save our dogs life. Is to become the teacher. Most of the time the dog can't figure it out on it's own. That's our job. We have to accept accountability not for the dogs actions but the lack of direction given to the dog. The lack of help that our dog needs to survive in this complex world that is unnatural to them. In their world flight and running away are natural. They help keep them alive. That's what fear was intended on doing for the body. It's the same with us. Most of the time though in our homes or in our everyday life we are not faced with such challenges. Yet we build them up in our own heads to have that much power. We have the ability to understand that behavior. Our dogs only react to what is going on around them. They can not process that it's not a game of survival. That's why you can totally change their behavior almost seamlessly without much resistance. At the end of the day if your dog knows what to do your dog will ultimately be happy.
Until next time!! Thanks for reading and as always please leave your comments! To listen to this consult please catch the pod cast. The name of the show is Dog Training with Patrick!. Be sure to check out the whole consult if you are curious of how to handle a situation like this.